Wild Child
Director: Nick Moore
Writer: Lucy Dahl
Cast: Emma Roberts, Lexi Ainsworth, Shelby Young, Johnny Pacar, Aidan Quinn, Natasha Richardson, Georgia King, Kimberley Nixon, Juno Temple, Sophie Wu, Linzey Cocker, Shirley Henderson, Alex Pettyfer, Nick Frost
Seen on: 30.11.2019

Plot:
Poppy (Emma Roberts) lost her mother and ever since she has gone from spoiled to unbearable. When her father Gerry (Aidan Quinn) is at the end of his wits, he sends her to boarding school in England – her mother’s boarding school. Poppy is not on board with that plan, so she quickly resolves to do everything in her power to get expelled and back home. But while she doesn’t leave a very good impression, the school, the girls and the headmaster’s cute son (Alex Pettyfer) do start to grow on her.

Wild Child is a cute teen film about belonging and growing (up) that doesn’t tread any new ground whatsoever, but it is entertaining enough.

Wild Child is pretty standard in the way it tells its story and in the stroy it tells. There are no surprises here – if you expect that, you need to look somewhere else. Here the mean girl is mean and gets properly punished, and the good girl is good even if she doesn’t seem like it at first. Everything is in order in the end.

The film does deviate a little from most other teen comedies by not focusing so much on the romantic angle. It’s there, of course, and in the end, Poppy gets her guy, but it’s much more about her and the girls and how she needs to learn to forge meaningful friendships with them. That was nice.

Now, Wild Child is not a film that will remain with you for long. It’s the cinematic equivalent of fast food: easily consumed and quickly digested, it leaves you hungry for more soon after, but once in a while, a bit of fast food is the best thing that you can eat. So if you’re looking for a nice, uncomplicated movie snack that has the added bonus of featuring Juno Temple, Wild Child is the perfect choice for you.

Summarizing: Mindless fun.